Jan McLaren of Nashville wants to know what advantage there is in using parchment paper when baking.Jan, I love parchment paper! It can resist both moisture and grease and is rather inexpensive. It promotes nice, even baking (particularly for cookies) and saves you time with clean-up. Using parchment paper means you don’t have to wash and butter pans between batches. It is also excellent for wrapping foods that are going to be baked.

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If there is one dessert that most people have a hard time resisting, it’s a nice large platter of warm, homemade cookies. These individual servings of goodness have been ending meals and providing a mid-afternoon pickup for decades. In addition, they are one of the easiest items to make and take, and since they rarely require any exotic ingredients, they are economical holiday gifts.

So in honor of culinary success, let’s review some cookie-making basics, beginning with the ingredients. Forget the margarine because butter will give you the best flavor. Avoid using any whipped butter products because those contain a higher percentage of water, which is not recommended in baking.

If you are rolling out the dough for cut cookies, use equal parts of flour and powdered sugar for dusting the surface. It will prevent the cookies from becoming tough from using too much flour as the bits and pieces are re-rolled. And cut the shapes out as close as possible to each other to keep re-rolling at a minimum.

Place the dough on the baking sheet at least an inch apart unless the recipe suggests otherwise. This allows for the dough to spread without crowding the others on the pan. Then, make sure you allow the baking sheets to return to room temperature before reloading with more dough for baking.

All cookies bake rather quickly, so set a timer for the shortest time suggested in the recipe and check them at that moment to prevent over-baking. Chewy cookies should only be baked until the edges are golden and the center actually looks slightly under-baked. Soft cookies generally cool on the baking pan for a minute or two before being transferred to a wire rack to cool.

Make sure the cookies are completely cooled before stacking and storing. Separate layers with waxed paper to prevent them from sticking together. Never store crisp and chewy cookies in the same container or you will suddenly have all soft cookies.